• Dominican Anthony Neyrot renounced Christianity after being captured by Moorish pirates, but publicly reconverted and was stoned to death at Tunis?

Facts on topics related to Apostasy

Apostasy in Islam

• in 1834, the 17-year-old Moroccan Jewish girl Sol Hachuel was beheaded (pictured) for alleged apostasy from Islam?

Religious conversion

• Dominican Anthony Neyrot renounced Christianity after being captured by Moorish pirates, but publicly reconverted and was stoned to death at Tunis?
• Zhang Chengzhi, who formed China's first group of Red Guards while a student at Tsinghua University Middle School, converted to Islam?
• in the Sino-French War, Presbyterian missionary George Mackay refused to leave during the French bombardment of Tamsui (sketch pictured) because he could not take his Formosan converts with him?

Islam

• Georgia’s capital Tbilisi functioned as the center of an Islamic emirate under the Arab rule from 736 to 1122?
• Muhammad had engaged as a diplomat for a time during his call to Islam?
• Amar Ouzegane, first secretary of the Algerian Communist Party until 1947, later renounced communism, arguing for a fusion of Islam and socialism?
• Hauz Khas Complex in South Delhi encompasses a water tank, an Islamic seminary, a mosque, a tomb and pavilions built around a medieval village in the 13th-century Delhi Sultanate reign?
• Ismael Urbain was a high-level official in mid-nineteenth century French Algeria and adviser to Napoleon III due to his strong knowledge of Islam?
• Jacob's Well (pictured) in Nablus is a site associated with Jacob in Jewish, Samaritan, Christian and Muslim tradition?
• Maryam Jameelah, a New York-born convert from Judaism to Islam, became a prominent female advocate for conservative Islam?
• Mohammed Salman Hamdani was a Muslim citizen of the United States who was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks and who is specifically mentioned in Section 102 of the USA PATRIOT Act?
• Niccolò Da Conti (1395–1469) was a Venetian merchant who traveled around the Indian Ocean for 25 years in the early 15th century, and was made to relate an account of his travels as a penance for converting to Islam?
• Sabr is the Islamic virtue of patience and endurance?

Saudi Arabia

• Emirati marriage counselor Wedad Lootah claimed that many men in Saudi Arabia have their first sexual experiences with other men, due to its gender segregation?
• Saudi Arabia promised to supply 50,000 barrels of free oil per day to help Pakistan if economic sanctions were imposed after its 1998 nuclear tests?
• Saudi Arabian Prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdul Aziz was Governor of the provinces of Tabuk, Medina and then Mecca, between 1980 and his death in 2007?
• Winston's Hiccup refers to the huge zigzag in Jordan’s eastern border with Saudi Arabia, supposedly because Winston Churchill hiccuped as he drew the boundary of Transjordan after a generous and lengthy lunch?
• a Saudi businessman offered US$10 million to buy the shoes thrown by al-Baghdadia TV correspondent Muntadhar al-Zaidi at U.S. President George W. Bush during a recent press conference?
• as a Jordanian tribal Shaikh, Barjas al-Hadid has been responsible for mediating blood feuds between tribe members in Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia?
• the Iraqi Army launched an offensive into Saudi Arabia on 29 January 1991, leading to the Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War (U.S. Marine artillery pictured)?
• the Arab Socialist Action Party, the main secular opposition group in Saudi Arabia at the time, faced a massive crackdown in the spring of 1982?
• the Haramain High Speed Rail Project in Saudi Arabia, will run for 444 km (276 mi) between the Islamic holy cities of Medina and Mecca with 320-km/h (200-mph) electric trains?
• the first Filipinos to settle in Saudi Arabia arrived in 1973?

Nigeria

• Chinua Achebe's novel A Man of the People described a coup d'état so similar to the real circumstances of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi's rise to power in Nigeria that Achebe was suspected of knowing about the coup in advance?
• coal mining in Nigeria, for which the Nigerian Coal Corporation had a monopoly until 1999, peaked in the 1950s, then suffered from the use of oil and the Nigerian Civil War afterwards?
• emigration of physicians and nurses poses a major problem for Nigeria's health care system, as there were 21,000 Nigerian doctors practising in the U.S. alone?
• India established its diplomatic representation in Nigeria in 1958, two years before Nigeria's independence from British rule?
• LA's St. Cecilia Church, built in 1927, adapted to its multiethnic community by installing shrines to a beatified Nigerian priest, a Oaxacan Virgin, and a Guatemalan "Black Christ"?
• Nigeria's Bakolori irrigation project, one of the world's most expensive irrigation schemes, adversely affected downstream farming in the floodplains?
• Nigeria, which contains what was once the Kingdom of Benin, has repeatedly called for the U.K.'s return of the Benin Bronzes, in a situation similar to Greece's petition for the return of the Elgin Marbles?
• Nigerian businessman Alhassan Dantata was the wealthiest person in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955?
• rioting in 2001 involving Christians and Muslims in Jos, Nigeria, caused over 1,000 deaths along with many buildings, cars, and people being burned?
• Chika Chukwumerije had financial backing unavailable to most Nigerian athletes because of his father Uche Chukwumerije?

Qatar

• Qatar was the first country on the Persian Gulf to allow women the right to vote?
• Filipinos are expected to become the second-largest group of foreign workers in Qatar by the end of 2009?
• robotic jockeys are used in camel racing events in Qatar in an effort to phase out the widespread use of forced child labor in the races?
• besides training its own officers, the Pakistan Naval Academy has trained over 2000 officers of allied navies including the Chief of Naval Staff of the Qatar Emiri Navy?
• the world's largest LNG carrier Q-Max Mozah was named by and after Mozah Nasser al-Misnad, Sheikha of Qatar?